The present invention relates to cylindrical wall magnetic domain memories, and, more specifically, to a major-minor loop organization which provides reduced access time to data stored in the minor loops.
One of the concerns in the development of the cylindrical magnetic domain memory is the reduction of access time to data which is stored in the memory. The patents to Buhrer No. 3,806,901 and to Bonyhard et al., 3,618,054 describe a cylindrical magnetic domain memory utilizing a plurality of minor loops which are accessed through a single major loop. When access to a record in the minor loops is desired, the bits comprising the record are transferred from the minor loops to the major loop.
Various other patents have described techniques for transferring data to and from one or more circulating memory storage loops with a view towards reducing access time to stored data. Among such patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,732,551 to Homma et al., and 3,737,882 to Furuoya. The Homma et al. patent discloses a plurality of unconnected loops in which a writing circuit is at one side of the loop and a readout circuit is at the other side of the loop. The Furuoya patent describes a bubble memory in which readin and readout of data from a plurality of loops occurs at different locations in the loops. However, none of these patents nor any others of which the inventor is aware describes the technique for reducing access time to circulating stored data in the manner described and claimed in the present patent application.